Earthquakes and human behavior: A sociological perspective

Human behavioral response to strong earthquake ground motion has not received the level of attention from social scientists that it merits and the scarcity of such studies has allowed a conventional wisdom to prevail suggesting that such behavior is driven by emotion, individualistic in character and largely maladaptive in result. In this study, three California earthquakes will be the focus for a comparative analysis of survey findings that attempt to identify the actions people take during ground motion generated by these earthquakes as well as the demographic, situational and cultural factors associated with these actions. Though now occupying “historic” status, two of the three earthquakes examined in this study remain the most recent earthquake disasters to impact northern and southern California. The study is informed by the existing literature on human behavioral response to earthquakes and the results are consistent with previous studies that suggest that behavior during a rapid onset disaster is diverse, varies with social context, is largely rational, adaptive and consistent with norms and role performance.